This invention relates to an apparatus for locating the end, or tail, of a rolled wound product, and in particular to an apparatus that includes a counter, referenced to the cutting of the web, for keeping track of the tail during subsequent operations on the roll.
It is common for manufacturers of rolled products, such as toilet tissue and other fibrous webs, to secure the tail of the wound roll to the roll. If the tail of the roll is not secured to the roll it may hinder the subsequent processing of the roll or may present an unacceptable appearance when packaged in a transparent wrapper. In the manufacture of a toilet tissue product, it is also desirable to secure the tail of the roll to the roll so that about 3/4 of an inch of the tail remains free of the roll to provide what is known in the art as a handle which can be grasped by the user to initiate unwinding of the roll. From the above discussion it can be seen that it is desirable to accurately position the tail of the wound roll prior to securing the tail to the roll.
One typical approach for locating and positioning the tail of a rolled product uses a light source and a photocell as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,044,532-Ghisoni and 3,912,571-Hartbauer et al. In those patents, the wound roll is rotated at the tail securing station and a jet of air directed onto the roll deflects the tail of the web into the light ray path between the light source and the photocell. Since the roll is rotating so as to wind the tail back onto the roll, the tail will clear the light ray path causing the photocell to provide an output signal that accurately locates the tail. The photocell output signal controls the tail securing device which could, for example, be a glue applicator. The glue applicator is so located that the tail will be glued to the roll with the desired handle length. One disadvantage of a tail locating apparatus that employs a light source and a photocell is that the response characteristic of the tail locating system is adversely affected by the buildup of fiber particles on the light source and photocell assemblies which can result in an unacceptable tail handle length or prevent entirely the operation of the tail securing device.
It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide an apparatus for locating and positioning the tail of a rolled product being wound onto a core.
Another object of this invention is to provide a more accurate tail locating and positioning apparatus.
And yet another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus that utilizes an electronic counter referenced to the cutting of the web for locating and positioning the tail of a rolled product.
A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus that uses an electronic counter referenced to the cutting of the web for keeping track of the tail of the roll as it is being wound at a winding station and then uses a number counted by an electronic counter to position the tail at a time that can be unrelated to the cutting of the web.